Court Strikes Out Suit Seeking To Compel INEC Allow Voting Without PVCs

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The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has struck out a suit seeking to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to allow the use of Temporary Voter Cards or Voter Identification Number (VIN) during the 2023 general elections.

The Incorporated Trustees of the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, Emmanuel Chukwuka and Bruno Okeahialam had sued INEC seeking for the court to issue an order to compel it to allow voting without the Permanent Voter Cards, (PVCs).

Justice Binta Nyako, in her judgement on the suit, held that the suit of the plaintiffs was inchoate, adding that Section 47 (2) of the Electoral Act provides for the use of PVC in the forthcoming general election.

Nyako said that INEC has been calling on people who had registered to come and collect their PVCs to enable them to participate in the election.

“Unless you give me a list of uncollected PVCs and a list of those who have registered but have not gotten their PVCs, then I can make a decision if not it remains a dicey situation,” she said.

She maintained that the suit amounted to an academic exercise since INEC had extended the date for registered voters to collect their PVCs and the exercise was still ongoing.

Justice Nyako also held that the Electoral Act provides that the commission can deploy any technological device for the conduct of the election and that INEC still had time to deploy the technological device to ensure that all eligible voters were able to vote.

The plaintiffs filed the suit in December last year alleging that if the court did not intervene, about 29 million registered voters would be disenfranchised in the 2023 general elections.

The plaintiffs, in their suit, asked the court to determine whether INEC could, as a consequence of its own contraption, disenfranchise or deprive Nigerians the right or opportunity to vote in the forthcoming general election.

In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2022, the plaintiffs asked the court to declare that, having been duly registered, they and the people they represent should be able to vote.

 

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